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Council approves Townsend Public Affairs contract to expand city grant‑seeking work
Summary
The council approved a two‑year retainer with Townsend Public Affairs ($6,000/month; $72,000/year not‑to‑exceed) to support grant research, applications and federal advocacy; staff said the firm helped secure $2.2M in prior awards and has about $3.5M pending.
The council approved a professional services agreement with Townsend Public Affairs (TPA) to provide grant writing, application preparation and post‑submission advocacy under a two‑year retainer with an annual not‑to‑exceed value of $72,000.
Staff said the RFP process was competitive (46 downloads, 15 responsive proposals, five finalists) and that TPA was selected for its statewide and federal advocacy capacity. Jenny Chow summarized prior work: TPA helped the city secure roughly $2.2 million in past grants and the city has about $3.5 million in pending funding. Jake Leichner of TPA said three congressional earmarks for Fountain Valley had cleared representative‑level review and were awaiting federal budget passage to be released.
Under the proposed contract TPA will run a monthly grants memo, coordinate kickoff and budget work across departments, and — as registered lobbyists — pursue post‑submission advocacy with legislators and funding agencies. Staff said the contract includes a standard retainer plus smaller on‑call agreements for specialized technical grant work (e.g., ATP, FEMA). Council approved the contract 5–0, and staff will schedule kickoff coordination with department heads.
